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Get ready for Justin-mania!

The Liberals said Thursday they will elect their new leader next April. But the result is a foregone conclusion: Justin Trudeau will enter the race and he will win.

The last remaining hurdle to his entry was the spending limit – too low and the fear was that Mr. Trudeau would not be able to respond to Conservative attack ads mid-campaign, once it became clear he was winning. That limit has now been set at $950,000, with a series of exemptions for travel, fund-raising and research that could add up to another $500,000.

The Trudeau camp will not confirm anything officially but Mr. Trudeau had already made up his mind to run, if the rules did not hobble his candidacy. They do not, and the National Post has now confirmed that he will make it official in due course and all the wishful thinkers, currently enjoying their 15 minutes in the spotlight, will be well advised to save themselves the $75,000 entry fee.

The reasons are clear. Bob Rae, the interim leader, boasted the party will hold the most “broad-based leadership race in Canadian history,” with an increased level of participation from previous races. This is because you no longer have to be a Liberal Party member to vote in the contest – you just have to sign up as a supporter online, supplying an email address and declaring you are not a member of another party.

You know, the key to dealng with Trudeau if he is leader is to ask him about all the things the LPC have gone back on, and ask him what he thought about them, and what is going to be different this time. We need to hammer at this over and over. His dad said he wouldn't implement Wage and Price controls, and then did. His dad wouldn't implement the Carter Commision's implementation of fair taxation of Capital Gains. The promised National Day Care in 1993 and then didn't. In 2003 they were determined to have stolen from workers from the Unemployment Insurannce fund and never paid it back, etc., etc., etc. The NDP has shied away from really going after these guys. We need to if we are going to make the case why you CAN'T trust the Libs and need to vote NDP. Even this garbage about the Kelowna Accord, we need to call them out and ask them for really meaningful committments this time. If we don't do this, the MSM will puff Trudeau up, and King Justin will follow his rightful succession to the throne. Rightful? Sure! Just ask a Lib.

Given that we already have a Liberal Leadership Race thread, how is this in any way deserving of it's own thread? The OP is clearly just an opinion on the Liberal leadership race, not a distict aspect of it that deserves its own thread.

Posting this in the aforementioned thread would have avoided the possibility of multiple concurrent discussions on the same topic that could result from this thread proliferation.

I don't see why I would lock a thread that is heralding Canada's next golden age. I'm sure some shortsighted individuals see this issue as frivilous; I see it as the most important happening of our time.

its gotta be the Liberal BBs who are delusional in pushing this mania...no one my age or younger knows who he even is...when he was in BC during the last election travelling Translink no one even noticed him...yep T mania coming right up. ok not so much i think!!!!!!

@quizzical, yes I really wonder which voters Justin Trudeau is meant to charm. I mean he did swear that one time, but most young people I know don't consider him any kind of deep thinker. And if Liberal baby boomers really want to relive their youth so bad that they invite this goof back, well I think we should all just away for awhile and spare their dignity.

Quizzical, I was wondering what generation you are and on what you base your observations regarding Trudeau. I am certainly prepared to take him serioulsy only because it is obvious the MSM wants to do do. What are you thoughts?

I'm too young to have experienced Trudeaumania, but it seems to me that it would have started in the general public AFTER he became PM, not before, right? Probably none of the younger generation really knew much about Pierre Trudeau before he became PM either - it seems to me that it would be only AFTER you elect the guy and then you have a young, charismatic and handsome man in the top seat that the "mania" starts.

(And yes, I used "man" deliberately, because I don't think the dynamic would be the same with a young, pretty, charismatic woman.)

I'm too young to have experienced Trudeaumania, but it seems to me that it would have started in the general public AFTER he became PM, not before, right?

Definitely before - though not long. It was evident during the election campaign and helped frame Trudeau in the public mind.

Quote:

Probably none of the younger generation really knew much about Pierre Trudeau before he became PM either - it seems to me that it would be only AFTER you elect the guy and then you have a young, charismatic and handsome man in the top seat that the "mania" starts.

He just looked "young". He was 48 - not particularly young for prime ministers. Joe Clark was 40 when he succeeded Trudeau. Mackenzie King was 47.

Trudeau-"mania" was a very shot-lived phenomenon. Trudeau jumped into the federal Liberal leadership contest just 6 weeks before the April 1968 convention, so it kind of started during that whirlwind leadership campaign - then it accelareted when Trudeauy called a snap election the day after winning the leadership and it carried him through to electyion day in June 1968 - not long after that Trudeau became quite unpopular and he never regained that initial "mania". I'm not sure that any "mania" for Justin could keep going through a seven month leadership campaign AND a subsequent three years as a leader of the third party in parliamewnt. Time is not on Justin's side in this case. I think Justin would be like Christy Clark in BC - a brief "mania" followed by total self-destruction.

Would the right leaning faction of the Liberal party not be shaking in their boots at the thought of Trudeau at the helm? I'm not so sure he would get overwhelming overall support from party members to win the leadership.

I don't follow all the political news as carefully as some here, so maybe I've missed something. So far as I can tell, JPT's accomplishments include being a diligent MP where constituency work is concerned, a decent person (I'm not knocking that), and the descendent of two Liberal politicans. He doesn't impress as a speaker or policy wonk or innovative thinker. It doesn't make sense for him, at this age (40-ish?) to run for leader when the party is in such a sorry state; he would be better advised to let someone else fall on his sword -- or his face. Or is it the fear that the Liberal party will be defunct if he waits too long?

Just seems like a dumb move from several points of view. Of course he hasn't actually announced his candidacy but the absence of denials suggests it is forthcoming.

I don't follow all the political news as carefully as some here, so maybe I've missed something. So far as I can tell, JPT's accomplishments include being a diligent MP where constituency work is concerned, a decent person (I'm not knocking that), and the descendent of two Liberal politicans. He doesn't impress as a speaker or policy wonk or innovative thinker. It doesn't make sense for him, at this age (40-ish?) to run for leader when the party is in such a sorry state; he would be better advised to let someone else fall on his sword -- or his face. Or is it the fear that the Liberal party will be defunct if he waits too long?

Just seems like a dumb move from several points of view. Of course he hasn't actually announced his candidacy but the absence of denials suggests it is forthcoming.

Its the same phenomena that occurred, the Liberals focus on the idealized fantasy of the guy and even seriously look under the hood.
Dion was displayed as an eviromental giant, a vision of a green future and Steven Harper was totally outclassed by him, and he was the posterboy for federalism, Mr. Clarity Act, but the reality is he was a terrible and weak enviromental minister, the Clarity Act is both poorly written and unrealistic, and he failed as communicator.
Micheal was touted as an intellectual titan, a,forgiegn policy expert, an inspiring speaker, and a man who outclassed Harper. The reality is he advacated forgiegn policy ideas such as Iraq that Canadians opposed and then changed his position in a way that was blantantly opportunistic, forgiegn policy does not determine Canadian elections anyways, and he allowed Harper to smear him, and while he may have given some barn burners as speeches, he got destroyed in the airwaves war and over all image.
Paul Martin was touted as a great finance minster, perhaps the biggest joke of all. He balanced federal budgets by tossing responsablity on those suffering and cutting health and education transferes. Then he acted as if he would protect these things from Harper and based his campaigns on it. Its like he ignored his own record.
Its the same thing with Trudeau. They talk about his charm, his bloodline (as if this is the middle ages where only the noblity and royalty were seen as fit to govern), his youth and visions of Camelot.
No one who toutes Trudeau as the savior of the Liberal Party mentions policies, concrete achievements, over all vision (an example of over all vision would be Mulcair and sustainablity and not just enviromental sustainablity), or anything of substance. Its the same Liberal patterns.